It's starting to look a little old-fashioned for investors living on the digital edge.
Some people are turning away from the original coin designed as an alternative to regular cash, in favor of its descendants, which are native tokens of platforms that host smart contracts and apps.
MarketVector's Smart Contract Leaders Index, which tracks major tokens of this kind - including ether, dot and solana - is up 36% in 2023, beating evenBitcoin's 33% rise. Solana's token is up 76% this year.
Bundeep Rangar, CEO of Fineqia, said he expected the biggest returns to come from smart contract tokens on platforms that support DeFi apps.
He said that those are ones that you will find capital appreciation, similar to what a growth stock will be.
According to CoinShares data, investment products tracking ether and solana have seen small inflows, even as bitcoin products suffered four consecutive weeks of outflows, indicating that investors in the $1 trillion world of digital assets seem to agree.
Almost seven of the top 20 biggest assets are smart contract token, including ether and dot, solana and cardano.
BofA analysts pointed out the smart contract token and the applications they power as similar to growth stocks in the equities world, typically technology shares.
In a February 24 research note, analysts at Bank of America wrote that the year of 2023 is likely to be the year of token price divergence.
It has been long traded in tandem with tech stocks, but that cord may be fraying as smart-contract tokens increasingly take up its super-growth mantle.
The 30 day correlation with the Nasdaq went negative on Feb. 23 for the first time since December, where a measure of 1 indicates that the two assets are moving in lockstep.
Some observers say that the strength in smart-contract this year points to a solid performance by the most established DeFi protocols despite the market ructions of 2022. They cautioned that the growth of projects and their associated tokens could be affected by the global macro outlook and central bank policy.
James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, warned that it was too early to call a major divergence in the field of criptocurrency. The shadow ofbitcoin still looms large over the sector, with its share of the total market value up slightly to 40%, from 38% at the beginning of the year.
Butterfill said such departures could be a sign of the growing up of the coinverse.
The market, as it evolves, will become more sophisticated and mature, and we will start to see price divergence.